This invention relates to an improved sheath-package for products which are required to be sterile, including tools or instruments such as clinical thermometers, tongue depressors, probes, catheters and the like, which are used by the medical profession and other scientific personnel. While the sheath-package is adaptable for use with a variety of objects, it will be described and illustrated in connection with a clinical thermometer.
While it is well known that the thermometer used in taking temperature readings must be in a state of sterility in order to avoid recontamination of the patient in subsequent readings, or contamination of another patient, it is not as well known among laymen that present practices in hospitals or by doctors in their private practices do not afford a sterile thermometer in most instances. The cross-contamination that can occur when the same thermometer is used on different patients is a constant hazard.
The shortcomings of this practice with regard to sterility of thermometers was well recognized by the medical profession which, while cognizant of the dangers of such practice, did not have available a practical and economical means of facilitating the use of a thermometer which is sterile at each use.
The inventions of my U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,552,558; 3,732,975; 3,809,230; and 3,842,280, generally provide in a sterile expendable package a sterile disposable sheath for instruments such as clinical thermometers. The package is designed so that a thermometer can readily be inserted by anyone so that the thermometer enters directly into a transparent sheath which has previously been sterilized and maintained in a sterile condition within the package in those areas which come into contact with the body of a patient. The package can be stripped to expose the sterile sheath, whereupon the sheathed thermometer may be inserted into a body cavity, and a reading subsequently taken through the sheath. The sheath can then be discarded, or it may first be discarded, so that the reading can be taken directly from the thermometer.
The thermometer may then, for subsequent use, be inserted into a new package and sheath without the necessity of sterilizing the thermometer itself after each use. This results in a substantial saving of time in the handling of the thermometer, and in the saving of money for the materials and supplies heretofore used to sterilize such objects. The use of such a sterile package will also serve to reduce the total number of thermometers required to be available.
In one embodiment of the invention described in the patents mentioned above, a tab portion provided around the mouth of the sheath is formed of portions of the package which project beyond the mouth away from the sheath. The excess portions of the package that are stripped from the sheath prior to use of the thermometer are left attached to the tab portions at the mouth of the sheath after the sheath has been exposed. One useful purpose for leaving these excess portions attached to the tab is to twist them together and use them to remove the thermometer from the sheath after a temperature is taken rectally so that the user will not be required to touch the soiled sheath after the sheathed thermometer has been removed from the rectum. In addition, these excess portions are desirable to provide an extra amount of material to hold upon removal of the thermometer to make sure that the sheath is removed from the body orifice along with the thermometer. The excess portions are connected to the tab by terminating the flared mouth portion of the sheath short of each edge of the package so that when the excess portions of the cover material and sheath material are stripped back they are left connected to the portions of those materials forming the tab. However, it has been found that in oral insertions, a preference may exist for separation and discarding the excess portions leaving only the shorter tab portions as a grasping means to withdraw the sheath with the thermometer from the patients orifice. The remaining tab portion is sufficient in size to permit removal of the contaminated sheath without requiring manual contact with said sheath.
It has been found that the procedure of totally removing the excess portions when a tab is provided as discussed above is cumbersome because the types of material used in forming the sheath-package resist a clean severance. This results in the possibility of wasted time and the likelihood that the sheath could become contaminated because of the relatively clumsy removal procedure. In addition, even after the large part of the excess portions have been removed some of the excess thermoplastic material used to form the sheath may still remain attached to the tab and prove to be bothersome.